LAHORE (ILO News): Stakeholders from diverse social development backgrounds testified their resolve for delivering on Pakistan’s national and international commitments on women’s empowerment with specific focus on working mothers and Childcare Centres, in a resounding Round Table Consultation organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Pakistan here on 20 February 2015.

The round table discussion was arranged in partnership with Women’s Development Department to understand how to improve the implementation of the Punjab Daycare fund established under the Chief Minister’s Women’s Empowerment Package, to support low-income working mothers and fathers.

The participants, including provincial parliamentarians, Women’s Development Department representative, Workers’ organisations representatives, Civil Society Groups, All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) and the media, appreciated Punjab government’s on-going work with regards to establishing specific mechanisms and allocating resources to help employers set up Childcare centres for their staff who have children up to age five.

However, the participants also pointed out gaping schism between policy and implementation and made a plea for governmental mechanisms to become more user friendly and enhance their clients’ awareness and trust upon the system. The employers too needed to be mobilized in order to realize the goal of fostering an enabling working environment for working mothers through setting up of childcare centres for their children, the discussants agreed.

MPA Ms Shameela appreciated the progress made in providing child care facilities for working parents, but pointed out that women need more information about availability of such services and more control over how to arrange child care.

Further to that, Ms Reiko Tsushima, Senior Gender Specialist, ILO emphasized that a range of measures are needed to redistribute the care responsibilities between public and private sphere and men and women, including introduction of parental leave and flexible working time arrangements.

The Womens’ Development Department representative underpinned the significance of this initiative saying that this was a unique initiative of the government of Punjab showing its commitment to women’s empowerment.

The discussants agreed on follow-up steps as the shared way forward. Parliamentarians agreed to set up a cross-party informal Childcare Advocacy Working Group. They agreed to inspire their constituents to raise their awareness and demand for the child daycare centres and lobby with employers and other parliamentarians support the provision of childcare centres.

Women Development Department to undertake a scoping to assess and collate information on possible childcare centres partners to meet the growing demand.

Employers agreed to collate existing best practices of child care provision from local employers while workers’ organisations agreed to collect recommendations from workers in terms of specific needs, gaps and challenges in child care for working mothers.

Thanking the participants for expressing their commitments, the Country Director, ILO Mr Francesco d’Ovidio said he looked forward to seeing the results of the discussion. He hoped the stakeholders would use their influence to promote childcare, not as a favour on women, but as a duty to help working parents exercise their right to work and earn and for their children. “These children are Pakistan’s future”.

For further information please contact:

Ms Frida Khan
National Project Coordinator
Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment (GE4DE)
ILO Country Office for Pakistan
email
Tel. +92 51 2276456-8